Story+1985-01-26+Syracuse,+NY

´´This is about falling through the bottom....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Johnny 99´´**

´´Thanks....this, uh....this is a song, I guess it´s about, uh....the hardest thing to do these days is to find something that you can hold on to, find something that you can believe in, I guess ....on T.V you see people (?) faith every day and, uh....sometimes people get so hungry to believe in something, that they believe in anything that comes along, like fool´s gold out there....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Reason to Believe´´**

´´Thank you, I was, uh....I guess it was around 1977, I was....driving through Phoenix, Arizona....and I was with a friend of mine, we were driving across the country....and, uh, I stopped in this drugstore to find something to read and I found this book called ´Born on the Fourth of July´....and it was by a Vietnam veteran named Ron Kovic....and it was his story about going off to war and coming home and what he found when he got back, how drastically his life had changed....and uh, we drove on to L.A and I was staying at this little motel, I remember I was swimming in the pool and I had the book with me on the chair and I got out and there was a guy kind of looking at me, he was, he was sitting in a wheelchair and he said ´I wrote that book´....and uh, I guess when I first met Ron, it was when I first started to look back and try and understand some of the toll that the Vietnam War took on the men and women that fought there and on our entire country (?)....but uh....this is a song called, it´s a song about coming home, it´s called ´Shut Out the Lights´....we should all always remember....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Shut Out the Light´´**

´´This is, uh....this next song, I guess.....we were, uh, it was on the Born to Run-tour, we were down in Memphis....I guess it was around 1976....and we played this little Memphis auditorium....and uh, we went home, we all went back to the hotel and me and Steve, my guitar player, we were sitting around....and uh....it was around three o´clock we decided we wanted something to eat so we called up a taxi cab, a taxi cab came down and picked us up and, uh, the guy said ´Yeah, I know someplace we can go right outside of town near Elvis´ house,´ we said ´You know where Elvis lives?´ he says ´Yeah, yeah,´ ´Well, take us there, take us there right now´....so it was about 3.30 in the morning, the guy pulls up outside Elvis´ and I get out of the cab and there´s those big gates with the guitar players on the front....and I kind of stand in front and I look in and I see a light in the second story window so I´m sure like Elvis must be up reading or something (chuckles) you know, he can´t sleep, and so I start climbing up over the wall and the taxi cab driver says ´Oh no, don´t do that, they got big dogs over there and they´re gonna get you´ but, uh, I climbed up over the wall and I started to run up the driveway, which I guess now I think was kind of a stupid thing to do ´cause I hate it when people do it at my house (chuckles) anyway, I was filled with the enthusiasm of youth (chuckles) and I (chuckles)(?) I run up the driveway and I get about, I get just about to the frontdoor, I´m just about to knock and these guards come out of the woods and they said ´What do you want?´ I said ´Well, gee, is Elvis home?´ (chuckles) and they say ´No, no, he´s not here, he´s in Lake Tahoe right now´ so I say ´Oh, you see, like, I´m a guitar player too and I got a band and we just played in town tonight and like I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek and stuff, you know´ ´Oh, yeah, yeah´....´Oh, sure you were, oh you were, Time and Newsweek, yeah, great, great´ (chuckles) so they took me back down and they put me back out on the street (chuckles) but, uh, they were pretty nice about it (chuckles) I don´t know what I would´ve said if I, if he´d come to the door like in his bathrobe or something (chuckles) ´Uh, uh´ (chuckles) but, but anyway, I guess, I remember when a friend of mine called me up and told me that he died, it was so hard to understand how somebody who, who´d come in and taken away so many people´s loneliness could´ve ended up so lonely.... and uh, it didn´t seem right, it didn´t seem right, seemed like he deserved a lot better, I guess if I´d´ve seen him....I guess I would´ve just said ´Thanks´....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Johnny Bye Bye´´**

´´Now, this song is a song about old times....how people think....on the old times on two days of the year: one is New Year´s Eve....anybody out there ever get like real depressed on New Year´s Eve?....that´s why you get so drunk, throw up all over your friend´s carpet....it´s a dirty job but somebody´s gotta do it....and the other time is your birthday....anybody have a birthday out there tonight? (some cheers) yeah, happy birthday (chuckles) now, January is a big, it´s a big month for E Street Band birthdays....Danny, Danny, he just had his birthday last week....he´s got his share of old times....and, now, Clarence, he just had his birthday a couple of weeks ago....Clarence´s got more old times than anybody else in the E Street Band ....but as you can see, he has maintained his youthful beauty....some of us are lucky.... anyway, this is a song about how all things must pass, everything dies, and how it ain´t nothing but, but glory days....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Glory Days´´**

´´Thanks....nah, growing up ain´t so bad....you can live with it (chuckles)....no matter how old you get, you gotta keep searching for that Promised Land.....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´The Promised Land´´**

´´Thanks....oh....yeah....I remember I was....in, uh, I was living in California for a while....I remember thinking back....to the town I grew up in and what it was like....what it was like now....and uh, I guess when you grow up, everybody kind of, you kind of have a love-hate-relationship with the place that you were raised....I remember when I was 16, I think it was 95 percent hate (chuckles) I couldn´t wait to get out of there, it was, uh, kind of a small-minded place, if you were different at all, it didn´t go over (chuckles) and uh, I used to think that when I got the chance to get out of there and I, I´d get out, I´d never go back, I´d never look back....and for a long time I didn´t but then as I got older, I started to come home off the road and for some reason I´d get in my car and I´d drive, drive down on all my old streets and stuff, you know, look at, look at the trees, like, when you´re a kid, you have your own tree (chuckles) I had this one tree that I used to love (chuckles) and I knew all the roots, I could trace all its roots and uh....I guess when I was, one of the things I was afraid of when I was young was I was afraid of belonging to something ´cause if you admit that you belong to something that means you got some responsobility to it....if you stand up and say ´I´m an American,´ that means you got some responsobility to America....and uh....sometimes that´s hard to, hard to live up to....but tonight when you go out into the lobby, you´re gonna see some folks from the Central New York Foodbank.....and what, who they are is a foodbank, every year in America 20 percent of all the food that gets produced gets wasted and thrown away, meanwhile in every city, in every, every town and every state there´s people that are going hungry, whose basics needs every day aren´t being met and in a country that´s as rich as ours, it just doesn´t make sense to happen....we got 15 percent of the entire population living beneath the poverty line, we got old folks who worked for their lives, whose social security checks don´t get ´em through the month....we got...the economic recovery isn´t reaching down to the people who need it the very most, people at the bottom (?)....you know, it´s, uh....hard to understand, but tonight when you go out there, check ´em out ´cause what they do is they get that good that gets wasted and they get it to the agencies that serve the people who need it the most.....it´s something that if the government don´t do it, then the people should do it....and, uh, sometimes it seems like people going hungry is something that just happens a long ways away but it happens here every day in your hometown....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´My Hometown´´**

´´That was Michelle....she surely is swell....how about a date?....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, after ´´Dancing in the Dark´´**

´´Thanks, this, uh....I was about 16 and I went into this hulabaloo club in Middletown, New Jersey....and, uh, there was this guy on stage singing these Paul Revere and the Raiders´ songs, had real long hair...and I kind of watched him for a while....those days we used to go, we used to go out to all the clubs and just look at the bands´ equipment before they played and watch what kind of stuff they had, what kind of amps they had, what kind of guitars they had....(?)....and, uh, anyway, at the end of the night I introduced myself, this guy and I became real good friends for a real long time and I guess part of the fun, I think back on when I was a teenager, was meeting somebody who you could share, like, you know, we liked the same records and.....we used to go out to the city, go up to New York and down to the Village....and uh....we used to watch all the guitar players, we´d just get a seat up front and watch their hands, then we´d go home and run down into his basement and try to, try to learn all the tricks....we used to come up here, actually there was a club up here, I don´t know if it still is, it used to be called the (?)(crowd cheers) it´s still open? (crowd cheers) yes? (chuckles) yeah? I used to come up here, I guess I was, I don´t know, Jesus, probably about 12 years ago now, it´s not long, longer and I remember going down to that club sometimes....but anyway, this is for Little Steven tonight, wherever he is....he had a record out a while ago called ´Voice of America´....which is a really great record, if you get a chance, you ought to pick up on it, I think you´d like it....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´No Surrender´´**

´´Now, take it easy there, boys....now, this is a song about the conflict.....between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy....and, brother, you can´t have both....now, where did this conflict begin?.....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....but the latest theological studies have provided conclusive evidence that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike....that´s why they call it the Garden State....everybody knows that ....but, now, understand....in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living....you didn´t go home and like crawl into a soft little bed, snuggle your head in that little pillow, you didn´t go get your Pop-Tarts and put ´em in the toaster and jump in the sack and watch Johnny Carson....weren´t no designer jeans, you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....no Sir!....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin....there was no sex....man lived in a state of innocence....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in....but before the tour I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries....and so I hitchhiked on out there and I found out that that spot was now, was now taken up by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot....I walked in, the man said to me ´Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, a full fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck, TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone?´...I said ‘I’ll take two’....I said ´But Dan, that´s really not the reason why I came....I wanna know the answer to some of this conflict, I wanna know what temptation is all about, why does my soul pull me one way and why does my body pull me the other all the time....he said ´Well, Son, that´s easy, because right here on these ten beautiful commercially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, now, in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things: there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and let me tell you she looked so fine....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman....and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch....and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman....and then they went out into the green fields....and they lay down....and when Adam....well, let´s just say it was the first time....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below....but that´s alright because here tonight on this backlot for 9995 and no money down and don´t worry about it if you´ve got bad credit, Sir, it´s good here....if you´ve got the nerve to ride, I´ve got the keys to their getaway car....the first....pink ....Cadillac....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Pink Cadillac´´**

´´I remember it was about....I guess ten years ago now....it was around the end of the summer....I remember I had this old Camaro that I´d bought for 500 dollars....and, and it ran good too, the only thing was it was a convertible and the top wouldn´t go up so when it rained, it rained (chuckles) and, uh, there was this little strip down off this river....where, I guess it was like a junkyard, people from town would go down and dump off the things they didn´t want no more, leave ´em out there to rust....on the weekends we used to go down there, sit around, talk and that was the first place that I met her and when I first met her, it was like, uh, I guess it was like it always is when you first start going out, it was like, you know, everything´s fun, everything´s great all the time....and, uh, we´d go out riding, it didn´t matter what we did....but time passes, people change and sometimes they don´t change together....I guess the things that made her happy once didn´t seem to make her happy any more and I was spending most of my time trying to figure out just what it was I could do to make her happy again....and she got to where she didn´t wanna go out and she wouldn´t talk too much any more, she got to hiding my keys at night so I wouldn´t go out riding in the car ....and I don´t know what it was, I know....maybe people expect too much of each other but I know one time, it got hard to make her understand that when I took the car out and when I won, that it was the only time I got to feeling good about myself....and that to have just one thing, one thing in your whole life that you can do that makes you feel proud of yourself....I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask.... (....) Well, that was the night that we left....we still don´t know where we´re going yet....but I guess maybe, maybe that´ll come in time.....but it seems sometimes like time gets running so short on you.....so much gets left behind....there´s not much you can do....but to keep on going....and keep on searching....and keep on going....and keep on going....and to keep on going....and you keep on going....and you keep on going....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Racing in the Street´´**

´´Thanks....oh....I just, uh....like to take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight....this is our, I guess it´s our 91st show and this is our last two shows in the States....and I´d like to just thank you guys, I know a lot of you guys wait out in the cold a long time for tickets (chuckles)....I hope nobody got sick (chuckles)....I want you to know we appreciate it....and uh, I´d like to just remind you that a long after we´re gone the Central New York Foodbank will be here in your community trying to make it a more decent and a more dignified place for all the people and they could use your help and support.....´cause in the end nobody wins unless everybody wins....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Can´t Help Falling in Love with You´´**

´´I don´t wanna stop yet....let me see, we´re a little late or a lot early, you make up your mind ....go ahead, Roy...(?).... (....) Here he comes now....he´s packing up that Cadillac sled....hitching up them V-8 reindeers....he´s flying over the North Pole....he´s got on that bad red suit, he´s flying over New Jersey....New York City....flying up to see ´em homicidal maniacs in Syracuse....has everybody been good way back there up on the hill? (crowd cheers) has everybody been good over there? (crowd cheers) what about you guys over here? (crowd cheers) what about you guys? (crowd cheers) you ain´t done no lying?....nobody cheated on their boyfriend or girlfriend? (crowd: ´No´) that´s good, alright (chuckles) come on, boys and girls....´´
 * 26.01.85 Syracuse, NY, intro to ´´Santa Claus Is Coming to Town´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//